Brahma Chellaney

Iran's role is critical to Afghanistan's future, including foiling Pakistan’s machinations. But China, with its rapidly growing clout in Iran, could influence Iranian policy on Afghanistan so as to promote Pakistani and Chinese interests at the expense of Indian and US interests.

US policy has pushed Iran into the arms of China and helped Beijing to bag lucrative contracts in Iran worth countless billions of dollars. China's growing military ties with Iran hold implications for India's role in Iran’s Chabahar port, which has been spared from US sanctions.

For the first time ever, a U.S. government agency... (inserting dropped word "time")

A country that lives by empty rhetoric, despite sharing borders with revisionist states, will surely become a victim of repeated aggression. If one uses labels from Randall Schweller's "Deadly Imbalances," India is a “lamb” state, surrounded by “wolf” China and “jackal” Pakistan.

With the coronavirus (or simply "corona," a Latin word for "crown") causing the greatest global disaster of our time, have you wondered about the impact on the sales of the world-famous Corona beer, whose logo is also a crown? This Mexican brand is the butt of dark-comedy memes.

China encroaches on border areas and then gets India to agree to disengage on "halfway" principle. China's ambassador says the hostilities can be diffused if India meets China "halfway." With "8 miles forward, 4 miles back," China aims to retain the core spoils of its aggression.

Between persisting with a weak-kneed China policy and waging an all-out war against China lie a hundred different options for India. To impose costs on China, India must utilize the options between those two extremities. The worst option is letting China off the hook too easily.

What a difference one week has made. Last Friday, Modi made a surprise visit to Ladakh and gave a strong speech that everyone thought was directed at China. In reality, the visit and speech sought to create domestic political space for him to begin troop disengagement with China.

Continental Southeast Asia has become a sort of laboratory for China to experiment with water as a political weapon. As droughts become more frequent due to China’s dam network on the Mekong, Beijing leverages its upstream water control to influence policies of downstream states.